It’s curtains for these teams in this PKL season
Pro Kabaddi League is the second most popular league of India, after Indian Premier League (IPL). Since its inception the league has received tremendous response by the audience. The season 6 is currently underway in Panchkula. With so much of excitement, action-packed Kabaddi drama the league has reached in its last quarter.
Playoffs matches will be commenced after the last leg i.e. Kolkata. For the playoffs, U Mumba, Gujarat Fortunegiants and Dabang Delhi K.C. have booked their spot from Zone A. From Zone B only Bengaluru Bulls has made it to the playoffs. Still two teams are not known that will qualify for the playoffs.
Talking about Zone A Puneri Paltan, Haryana Steelers and Jaipur Pink Panthers have got officially eliminated from the playoffs contentions. Despite having a good team combination these teams have got failed to live upon the expectations of their fans.
1) Puneri Paltan
Puneri Paltan started their campaign with a winning momentum. When you have a raiding attack consist of one of the most expensive players of PKL 6 Nitin Tomar and defense led by skipper Girish Ernak what else any team wants? But as the league progressed Puneri’s performance went on decline. One of the main reasons of this decline is absence of their primary raider Nitin Tomar. After Patna leg Nitin Tomar missed almost all the matches of Puneri Paltan due to his injury. Their secondary raiders were not given that much impressive performances and this put up excessive pressure on their defece which later gone shaky. And all these together cost Puneri Paltan spot in the playoffs. In group stage Puneri Paltan won 7 matches, lost 12 and 2 matches were drawn. They have one match left and it is against Telugu Titans tomorrow in Kolkata leg.
2) Jaipur Pink Panthers
Lack of team effort and individual dominance were the primary reasons behind Jaipur Pink Panther’s declining in PKL 6. Most successful captain of Pro Kabaddi Anup Kumar was brought into the team of Jaipur. It was not expected from him to go for the raid points but to build Jaipur as a unit. That team building never happened due to no contribution from the players. Yesterday (19th December) Anup Kumar got retired from all formats of Kabaddi. When more than half of the league got over Deepak Niwas Hooda was appointed as a captain. He bring them the results but the time has gone away now. Jaipur Pink Panthers has 6 wins, 14 losses and 2 draw to their name in group stage. They have two matches remaining. One is against Dabang Delhi K.C. tonight and another is against Bengaluru Bulls on 27th December in Kolkata leg.
3) Haryana Steelers
Haryana Steelers lost their captain Surender Nada in the very first match against Puneri Paltan. He got ruled out for the whole season 6. Surender Nada is one of the best defenders of PKL. His absence made their defence fragile. It never got clicked. Another reason of Haryana’s bad performance is poor form of the most expensive player of PKL history and their interim captain Monu Goyat. He has got the highest bid among all the players in PKL 6. But he could not delivered the performance which was expected from him. He was not in his element in entire season. He started campaign slowly. When he got the momentum it was too late for the Steelers. Haryana Steelers have won 6 matches, lost 14 matches and drawn 1 match. They will play their last match of this season in Kolkata leg against Tamil Thalaivas on 25th December.